The sounds of skittering and zapping echoed throughout the rocky dungeon, as the party made their way through it. The crystals on the walls glowed a faint cyan and emitted a low hum. The group was organised with Devo and Nova at the front. Shira, Alice and Lumina were in the middle, with Xenolith at the back. Alice took a bag of Berliners out of her inventory and started to eat them. Lumina tried to restrain herself from pleading with Alice for a doughnut. Alice offered a doughnut to Shira, who took one, before turning to Lumina.

"You want a doughnut, Lumi?". Lumina tried to say no but was overpowered by her sweet tooth. Lumina happily/reluctantly took a doughnut and started to eat it. Alice tried to offer Xeno a doughnut but he refused, saying he doesn't like sweet food. The trio continued to eat the doughnuts until they were all gone, causing the bag to disappear. Shira heard a scuttling sound on the ceiling and looked up at the ceiling but didn't see anything, BB popped her head from under Shira's hood and looked at the ceiling as well. Shira tugged on Alice's sleeve. Alice looked down at Shira.

"Is something wrong, Shira?".

"So what kind of monsters are in this dungeon Alice.?". Alice tried to recall what monsters appear in the Thunder Cave Dungeon.

"Umm... I think it was electric stone golems that take on the shape of insects. Kinda like those.". Alice pointed forwards at the swarm of Shock-stone beetles. Shira ducked behind Alice while Devo started to cast an ice spell and Nova's shield started to glow.

Nova slammed her shield into the ground and created a shockwave that sent the beetles flying. Devo followed up her attack by firing an Ice Storm, creating a cloud of snow that quickly encased most of the beetles. Frost started to cover the beetles, causing their movements to slow before the glowing parts on their bodies stopped glowing and their movements ceased. Nova quickly cast another Shield Shock Wave and all the frozen beetles instantly shattered.

The remaining beetles quickly scuttled off and the frozen beetle pieces glowed and changed into loot. Each beetle dropped the following loot; a Small Golem Core, three to five Stone Shells, two to three Thunder Stones, zero to a single Rune Stone and two Copper Valt Coins. Devo clicked Loot split and chose how to split the loot, making it so he got all the Rune Stones.

"So how many Runes did you get?" Alice asked. He quickly checked his quest and sighed. Alice tilted her head in response.

"Five...". The entire group was shocked at the small amount of Rune Stones.

"What? But you guys took out over a hundred beetles.". Alice became confused trying to calculate the drop rate and was shocked when she realised it was two percent. Some members of the party became a little apprehensive at the prospect of having to fight thousands of beetles. Xeno got an idea.

"Say Devo I think we should split into two groups.". Devo turned around and asked him why. Xeno explained that one group would collect the Rune Stones and the other would collect the Voltium Ore. Devo agreed and said he'll be on the rune collecting group.

They all split into two groups. Devo, Xeno and Shira were on the rune team while Alice, Nova and Lumina were on the ore team. Everyone started a Party Call before they split into the two groups. Devo overheard Lumina, on the call, telling Alice and Nova about a method Luminous told her on the best way to locate Voltium.

"So are we going to go to the lower levels of the dungeon, cuz we'll be here for hours if we continue to farm the beetles.". Devo agreed and opened his mini-map to check for the nearest access to the lower levels. Devo found it and asked Shira if he could carry her. She confusedly agreed and Devo got down on one knee. Shira climbed onto Devo's back and wrapped her arms around him. Devo stood back up and told her to braise herself, causing Xeno to realise what he was about to do. Devo's eyes started to glow before bolting at his top speed. Xeno's eyes started to glow as well before racing behind Devo.

Alice and Nova heard multiple distorted crunching/screeching noises over the call and wondered what was going on. Lumina told them not to worry it was just the audio being distorted by Devo and Xeno running past the Thunder Crystals on the walls, Lumina even pointing at the crystals she was referring to.

"They're probably heading to the dungeon's Floor Spire," Nova mentioned. The trio spotted a small cluster of Voltium Ore. Alice quickly ran over to it. She quickly took out what she thought was her pickaxe and struck the ore. However, the ore was unphased and the force she struck the ore with reverberated throughout her body.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"What gives? Do I need to have the Miner Sub-Class to mine ore now?". Nova cleared her throat to get Alice's attention.

"Alice... that's a shovel.". Alice looked confused and checked what tool she had in her hand. To her embarrassment, it was indeed a shovel. Alice quickly looked through her inventory and realised her pickaxe was in the slot to the right. She quickly swapped tools and mined the ore. After Alice depleted the durability of the ore it broke off from the wall and transformed into a smaller version of the ore. Alice picked up the ore and used the inspect skill on the ore.

[Voltium Ore(Low Quality)]

[3]

[The ore emit a faint glow and a faint tingle can be felt pulsing through your hand.]

"Humm... I don't think this quality will be good enough for the quest.".

"Agreed but won't we'll need to go to the lower levels?" Nova asked. The group checked their mini-map and located a tunnel that lead straight to the fifteenth level.

"Alright let's go," Lumina stated before the three of them headed towards the tunnel.

Devo and Xeno exited the tunnel and arrived at a giant circular chasm with hundreds of stone bridges that connect the holes in the walls, that's bottom couldn't be seen from their current level. Devo looked over the edge of the stone bridge and checked the stone bridges below them.

"See anything?".

"No, it seems clear for the next thirty levels.". Devo asked Shira if she was ok with him jumping down to the lower bridges. She said she was ok with him doing so. Devo and Xeno proceeded to parkour their way down the chasm.

"Say Devo do you know what level high-grade Voltium Ore starts to spawn?" Alice asked over the call. Devo landed on a stone bridge before answering.

"Around level fifty but there are some special rooms between the twentieth and thirty-fifth floors that have it.". Alice thanked him for the info. Devo rolled his eyes as he jumped down to the next bridge. However, as he was close to landing on the bridge it was suddenly sliced into pieces. Devo grabbed onto Shira before doing a backflip and tossing her upwards. Xeno caught Shira and BB, who had fallen out of Shira's hood, mid-air and landed on a different stone bridge.

Devo spotted the creature that had sliced the section of the bridge into pieces below him. The creature was a level two-hundred and seventy-three Ant Golem Guardian and it jumped off the debris to launch itself at Devo. The ant drew its spear back before launching a volley of spear thrusts at Devo. Devo countered by using a kick barrage. Xeno formed a shadow spear and pulled it out of his cloak.

"Devo catch!". Xeno tossed the spear towards Devo. Devo launched himself off the ant, sending it plummeting down the chasm. Devo caught the spear before jumping off the bottom of the bridge that Xeno and Shira were standing on, to follow after the ant. Xeno, with Shira and BB in his arms, jumped down and descended after Devo.

"What was that thing?".

"It's an Ant Golem Guardian, they usually spawn on the seventieth level and lower but we're currently on the forty-third level so why is it here?". Xeno pondered on why it was on such a low-level floor. BB climbed back into Shira's hood while Shira was preoccupied with Devo fighting with the Ant. The two repeatedly clashed their spears against each other. Devo slashed his spear upwards and managed to cut one of the ant's antennas off its head. As Devo jumped backwards to avoid the ant's downward spear slash his body faintly glowed that quickly fainted.

He looked up at Shira and figured she had cast a buff on him, given she was pointing her staff at him. He quickly glanced at the stat buff, which was of a blade with a glowing outline, and figured Shira had cast Keen Edge on him. Devo charged at the ant who charged at him in turn. Devo managed to avoid the ant's attacks and tripped it over with a slide kick. Devo tried to pierce the ant but it managed to block his attack with its spear. The force of the collision sent the ant across the bridge and for Devo to lose his balance.

The ant rolled across the bridge before springing to its feet. He spotted Devo was still trying to stop himself from falling off the bridge. The ant attempted to throw its spear at Devo but Xeno landed between them and blocked it with his free arm.

"Are you ok?". Xeno told her he was fine. She looked at his arm believing he was trying to look cool. However, she was surprised to see his arm was covered in an exoskeleton that had a scale pattern. Devo ran up next to Xeno and passed the spear to him.

"This guy's surprisingly strong for a B rank monster.". Devo also commented on how rare it is for warrior ant type monsters to use spears. Everyone was about to begin attacking again however they all got distracted by an increasing bright cyan glow from below. Xeno glanced over the stone bridge and instantly realised what the glow was. He grabbed onto Devo before surrounding himself and the others with his cloak that turned into a sphere. The second the sphere solidified. A raging beam of energy tore through the stone bridges and when it disappeared there was a clear gap through the overlapping bridges and the cloak sphere rapidly plummeted through the gap into the lower levels of the chasm.